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The story is simple: Five college students venture into the wooded mountains of Tennessee to spend a weekend of fun in an isolated cabin. Instead, the teenagers find the "Book of the Dead" (also referred to as "Naturan Demantos" in the film and " Necronomicon Ex Mortis" in the two sequels, although it is not actually related to the book of that name from the Cthulhu Mythos), play a tape recording of demonic incantations from the Book, and unknowingly open a portal to the netherworld. The characters are then killed off in a somewhat disjointed sequence of scenes of extremely intense, bloody and realistic-looking violence, and the film ends with the apparently invisible evil spirit bearing down on the last survivor.

Two sequels were made, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, although Army of Darkness was not a horror film. Many consider Evil Dead II to be a remake of the original. This controversy stems from the beginning of the film, where the story of the first movie is summarized, though done so with some changes to the script. The creators, however, have repeatedly stated that Evil Dead II is, in fact, a sequel.

The series is regarded as a cult classic, and a book, The Evil Dead Companion (Bill Warren, BooksEnthsiast.com), has been written about it.

In Germany, the movie's release was hindered by public authorities for almost 10 years. During the ten year legal battle between original distributor VCL, legislation was introduced effectively banning anyone under the age of 18 to enter a video rental store. Original 1982 video releases of the movie had been seized, making the movie a hit on the black market video circuit, with pirated copies abound. A heavily edited version was first made available in 1992. On DVD, the film has been made available uncut for the first time on the German market since its original release in the 1980's. In other German language markets, the movie was never restricted from distribution. Several high-profile horror enthusiasts, among them even author Stephen King, publically criticized the German ban on the movie.

The Evil Dead trilogy has inspired two video games: Evil Dead: Hail to the King , for PlayStation and Sega Dreamcast, and Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick , for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

References to Evil Dead have appeared in several different productions:

Movies:

• Dogma
• ScreamScream is the name of a 1996 horror/dark comedy film directed by Wes Craven and written by Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson. The film revitalized the slasher film genre in the mid 1990s by introducing a somewhat standard concept (teens getting brut
• Donnie DarkoDonnie Darko is a 2001 film, the first by writer and director Richard Kelly. The movie is a noirish science fiction film and psychological thriller about a boy named Donnie Darko who, after narrowly escaping death, has visions of a giant bunny rabbit name
• High FidelityFor audiophile sound systems, see high fidelity''. High Fidelity is a British novel by Nick Hornby, first published (BooksEnthsiast.com) in 1995. It was made into a film in 2000 starring John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Jack Black, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Lili Ta
• A Nightmare On Elm StreetA Nightmare On Elm Street was the first in a series of horror films that were exceptionally popular in the 1980s. The central character of the films is supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger, played by Robert Englund. Krueger is able to attack and kill
• Shaun of the DeadShaun of the Dead is a zombie themed romantic comedy, or "romzomcom" as it dubs itself, released in 2004 ( April 9 in the United Kingdom, September 24 in America). It was written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, directed by Edgar Wright, and stars Simon Pe

Television:

• ReBootReBoot is a Canadian animated television series for children produced by Mainframe Entertainment, noted for being the first completely computer animated television series. The setting, which seems to been inspired by the Walt Disney Company film, Tron is

Video Games:

• Duke Nukem series
• Blood series